Some Words About Mothers From Me To You

In February, a friend recommended I audition for a show called Listen To Your Mother, a nationwide show wherein people from across the country gather for an evening to hear original essays on motherhood.  It never would’ve occurred to me to audition for the show had I not been pushed, and I’m so glad I was because it was a really powerful experience, both to hear other women’s stories about motherhood, and to write my own.

Motherhood is pretty hard.  From every angle.  But the resounding theme of the night, from every story heard, was overwhelming gratitude for the great and difficult gift of motherhood.

The show was recorded and will be made available on YouTube this Summer, but in the meantime I thought I’d share my piece on motherhood with you, for Mother’s Day.

(Scroll to the bottom for the video)

In the words of the daughter, granddaughter and mother, Beyoncé Knowles,

“I am a result of my grandmother’s prayers.”

My mother, my daughter and I, are also the result of a grandmother’s prayers. My grandmother’s prayers; her fervent, specific prayers, for daughters. My mother was the last child, the only girl in a family of boys. My mother also prayed for daughters; she was given five. I prayed, and although I stayed away from specifics, I too, was, unsurprisingly, given a daughter.

We are a fierce line of women. Unapologetically strong, red-lipstick-wearing, working mothers who nurture our children to be exactly who they are and not a single ounce less. My grandmother was a child of the depression, transported from her home in Iowa to San Francisco on a long, cold uncomfortable train journey with her family, her mother and father and sister, in search of new opportunity. She went to college, and became a nurse in the early 1920’s in the face of poverty, hunger, extreme exhaustion, and chauvinism to a degree I will never accept or understand.

My mother was a child bride, but a college graduate, who went on to a career teaching elementary school to hundreds of children deemed unteachable. She worked every single day, cooked dinner for her 8 children at night, and managed to have a sense of humor as she woke every morning to do it all again.

I wanted great things for myself as a child, but knew nothing more specific about my future than that I wanted to marry and have children. I badly wanted to be a mother. Motherhood didn’t come easily to me. In the face of mortal danger and disease, I was eventually given two beautiful gifts, first a daughter and 5 years later, a son. I have both lost, and found myself in motherhood, and coming full circle, motherhood has set me free.

I finally understand the deeply primal need to protect and nurture, to give and receive, to watch over, safeguard, feed, and eventually set my offspring free, as does a proud lioness with her little lion pride on the tundra.

I am the granddaughter of my grandmother’s dreams, the daughter of my mother’s, and the mother of my own. I am theirs, and they are mine, and we are we.

Allison

Hello there! I'm Allison Czarnecki, founder + editor of Petit Elefant, a blog all about style on a budget for every part of your life: style / home / travel / family. I do a lot of how-to beauty + style tutorials, travel posts, easy recipes, home remodel projects, and cool DIY crafts you totally want to try. I'm super happily married (to a hot Polish immigrant) and am the mother of two kids, a daughter and son, all of whom are featured here on the regular. We live in the country but we're a little bit rock + roll. Welcome!